No. 22 Boise State (20-4, 3-0 MW) is hosting a big weekend of men’s tennis action at the Appleton Tennis Center when the UC Irvine Anteaters (9-13, 0-3 Big West), Idaho Vandals (7-11, 2-1 WAC) and San Diego State (9-10, 3-0 MW) all come to town to face the Broncos.

The weekend starts on Friday when the Broncos host UC Irvine out of the Big West Conference at 1 p.m. (Mountain). Coach Patton coached at UCI from 1980-92 guiding the Anteaters to a 288-150 mark.

Later in the day, Boise State will square off in doubles against instate rival Idaho at 6 p.m.

Then on Saturday the Broncos and Vandals will pick it up with the singles competition starting at 9:30 a.m.

Boise State’s weekend will then wrap-up with a Saturday night encounter with Mountain West co-leader San Diego State at 5:30 p.m. This will be a battle between the top two teams in the conference standings.

The matches are all scheduled to take place at the Appleton Tennis Center, weather permitting. If the weather prohibits outdoor play than the match will move indoors to the Boas Tennis Center at 1507 S. Oakland Ave.

ABOUT THE OPPONENTS
UC Irvine Anteaters

UCI enters teh weekend at 9-13 overall, but the Anteaters bring a four-match losing streak to Boise. Last weekend they lost at Mountain West member Fresno State in a tight 4-3 decision, it was their lone match of the week.

Shuhei Shibahara is the lone Anteater with a winning singles record at 9-8. Tyler Pham leads the ‘Eaters with nine wins at a single position (No. 2). Duos of Ryan Cheung/Jonathan Poon and Justin Agbayani/Caryl Hernandez each lead the team with six wins apiece in doubles action.

Idaho Vandals

The Vandals bring a 7-11 mark to Boise and are coming off a pair of defeats in Portland (March 30-31) to Hawaii 5-2 and Portland 6-1.

Idaho's doubles team of Jose Bendeck and Cristobal Ramos is ranked 89th nationally and No. 1 regionally. No statistical information was available on Idaho at press time.

San Diego State Aztecs

The Aztecs are tied with Boise State at the top of the MW standings with 3-0 conference records. SDSU has split its last two matches defeating UCSB 4-3 (April 5), then lost at No. 49 San Diego 6-1 (April 9).

Thorsten Bertsch has the best singles record of the Aztecs at 14-12 overall and is 7-9 in duals at No. 1 this spring. Hunter Nicholas has played every match at No. 2 going 5-11 and is now 9-15 on the year. In doubles Bertsch and Nicholas have played the most as a team on court one going 5-6 in duals.

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BRONCOS IN NATIONAL RANKINGS

After winning their second-consecutive Blue Gray National Tennis Classic championship in Montgomery, Ala., on Feb. 23rd Boise State catapulted 26 spots from No. 41 up the national rankings to No. 15.

Boise State has since gone 11-2 and are currently ranked 22nd in this week’s ITA rankings.

BETTLES NATIONALLY RANKED

Bronco senior Andy Bettles enters the weekend with and overall mark of 22-13 and is ranked 85th nationally.

Recently: Boise State is coming off a home sweep last weekend defeating Utah State 6-1 and Middle Tennessee State 4-1.

Record: Boise State is 20-4 overall and 3-0 MW entering this weekend. Last year the Broncos went 20-10 overall and 8-1 in conference.

20 Wins: This is the eighth time in the last 12 years, since Patton returned as coach, that the Broncos have won 20 or more matches in a season.

The Broncos at Home: Boise State has swept eight consecutive home matches entering this weekend’s slate and is 9-1 at home in 2014. Traditionally the Broncos are hard to beat in Boise where they went 10-1 during the 2012-13 season.

Boise State on the Road: The Broncos are 11-3 on the road in 2014 with its three losses coming at then-seventh-ranked Baylor (Jan. 25) 4-0, a 5-2 loss at then-No. 43 Oregon (March 2), as well as at No. 52 Stanford (April 1) 4-0.

Roster Review: Boise State returned an experienced squad last fall which has helped the program move up the national rankings. Boise State welcomed back two seniors in Andy Bettles and Nathan Sereke, two juniors, three sophomores, as well as added two freshmen in Brendan McClain and Abe Hewko.

TOUGH SCHEDULE

To Boise State’s credit it has played an extremely tough schedule which included five straight weeks on the road where the Broncos won nine consecutive matches before finishing the stretch 9-2.

They have faced 11 nationally ranked opponents to date and have gone 7-4 against them.

They have recorded victories over No. 21 Clemson (W 4-3), No. 37 VCU (W 4-2), No. 36 Alabama (W 4-0), No. 66 BYU (W 4-3) and No. 32 Drake (W 4-1), all away from Boise. They have also defeated No. 42 Minnesota (W 5-2) and No. 46 Virginia Tech (W 4-3) in Boise. Note, the rankings are what they were at time of match.

The Broncos lone losses are to No. 7 Baylor (L 4-0) at Waco, Texas, in the second week; at home against No. 32 Northwestern (L 5-2) on the opening weekend; a 5-2 loss to No. 43 Oregon; and most recently 4-0 at No. 52 Stanford. Note, the rankings are what they were at time of match.

Boise State has played and defeated on the road current No. 51 Utah (W 5-2) and No. 68 New Mexico (W 4-3) who were not ranked at the time of the match. The Broncos have also defeated Marquette and Washington who have been in and out of the rankings this year.

They will also play a few teams that have been in and out of the rankings this season including MW members San Diego State and Air Force.